The Biden administration has sharply intensified its campaign of pressure and criticism against Israel in recent days. Is US policy regarding the war changing in fundamental and significant ways? Has Biden abandoned the pro-Israel policy that he originally articulated months ago? In the first days following the October 7 pogrom, President Biden spoke out strongly in favor of Israel’s goal of destroying Hamas. In an interview with the CBS program “60 Minutes” on October 16, Biden was asked if he agreed with Israel that “Hamas must be eliminated entirely.” He replied: “Yes, I do.” The administr ..read more

Nothing is random. Within a time frame of a few weeks, I had a number of acquaintances from the UK tell me I should feature Yossi Gluck and his company Next Level Events. Yossi is an all-encompassing event planner who oversees high-end events from A-to-Z—or, as he says, “A-to-Zed.” Although high-end luxury events are commonplace in the US, they were rare in the UK until recently. But they are becoming more and more common there—thanks in part to Yossi and his team. While Yossi works with people with any budget, his meticulous attention to detail and talent for producing eye-pleasing events ha ..read more

It has been given the felicitous name “Sudden Russian Death Syndrome” by The Atlantic’s Elaine Godfrey. “It” being the seemingly long and ongoing chain of mysterious untimely demises of people who have been critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin or who have crossed him in some way. The proximate causes of the deaths have been poisonings, shootings, falls from windows and, in at least one case, a plane crash. What they all have in common are their suddenness and the victims’ having raised Mr. Putin’s ire. A recent victim of SRDS was Maksim Kuzminov, whose abrupt murder on February 13 in ..read more

An iconic Orthodox Jewish-American politician passed away last week, leaving behind a legacy of historic achievements and political friendships across the aisle that are almost unheard of now. Above it all, his dedication to Yiddishkeit was such that he held fast to Torah and mitzvos even when in the highest positions of power. Joseph Isadore Lieberman served as the US senator for Connecticut for 24 years, as a Democrat , and he was the first Jewish person to be on a presidential ticket when he ran as the vice presidential pick of Al Gore in the election of 2004. Senator Lieberman, universall ..read more

Greg Corbin, a recipient of numerous prestigious awards, is the president and founder of Northgate Real Estate Group. Prior to starting Northgate, Mr. Corbin spent four years at Rosewood Realty Group as the president of Bankruptcy and Restructuring. While there, he and his team arranged the sale, workout or recapitalization of over 100 buildings, development sites, membership interests and loans totaling $1.1 billion in underlying collateral. Before Rosewood, Mr. Corbin spent a decade at Besen & Associates. Prior to that, he was a director of sales at Massey Knakal, now Cushman and Wakefi ..read more

On Monday, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The US abstained from the vote, allowing the resolution to pass, saying that they could not vote for the resolution because it failed to condemn Hamas. A chasm between the US understanding of the resolution and Israel’s understanding immediately opened. In response to the US abstention, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called off his government’s participation in talks with the White House about a possible offensive in the south Gaza city of Rafah. (Israeli Defense Minister ..read more

“Israel has no stronger ally than the United States and our relationship transcends any one president or any one prime minister.” —Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) “[I]t seems to me the bipartisan support for Israel seems to be cracking on the political left, in this country.” —Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) When Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer gave a speech calling for new elections in Israel to toss Benjamin Netanyahu out of office, it seemed like yet another sign that Israel was losing support in the US as the war with Hamas continues. Members of the Biden a ..read more

hen Yitzchok Rosenberg shows up for an install, one of the most common reactions he receives is “I wasn’t expecting someone looking like you.” The fish tank business is not a typical occupation for a chasidishe yungerman. Some talk about turning a passion into a business, but Yitzchok actually did it. He does everything from building high-end complex and beautiful fish tanks for corporate clients to maintaining simple fish tanks in private homes. In the US alone, over 12% of the population own indoor fish tanks, but maintaining them is the key to keeping your fish around for longer than the o ..read more

Back in September 2015, a New York Times report on clashes at Har Habayis referred to the makom mikdash as the site where the Jewish temples were “believed to have once stood.” Three days earlier, the same venerated paper described the holiest place in Judaism as a site “revered by Jews” but “one of the three holiest sites in Islam.” A Times video around that same time referred to the site “that Jews call the Temple Mount…” and that “Jews widely believe was the site of the Temples.” Call the Temple Mount? I wondered at the time. That’s what it is. Widely believe? Yes, we also widely believe t ..read more

How are you doing today? I’m all right. I’m having a very long day today because it’s Ramadan and I don’t have anyone else helping me tonight. I’d also like to go visit an inmate who is dying in the hospital, which will also give me an opportunity to go to the mikvah, because the mikvah in Scranton is open all day. How does Ramadan affect a Jewish chaplain? I am the chaplaincy program director at the state prison. I’m the first Jewish chaplain to hold this position in Pennsylvania, but I’m not the only one. There’s another yungerman in Squirrel Hill who started as a contract chaplain—which me ..read more